


Lending a Hand

by merelypassingtime



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-10-02 20:12:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17270348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merelypassingtime/pseuds/merelypassingtime
Summary: Prompt fill for ironstrangeprompts #192:A villain with magnetic powers tears the metal pins out of Stephen’s hands.https://ironstrangeprompts.tumblr.com/post/181508490446/prompt-192-a-villain-with-magnetic-powers-tears





	Lending a Hand

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to IronStrangePrompts for this wonderful, painful idea, as well as so many others. <3

The battle had been going so well, right up to the point the elemental force they were fighting turned its powers to his hands, wrenching every pin and metal rod seven surgeries had put into them out in one terrible moment.

The pain was horrific. It was also the last thing Stephen remembered before very sensibly blacking out. Later, after waking up on a table in Wakanda, Tony told him that he’d only survived because the Cloak had wound around his wrists, acting as a tourniquet as the others finished the foe.

Looking at the carefully bandaged stumps were his hands had been, Stephen wasn’t sure if he was grateful. Numbly, he said, “I can still feel them.”

“Yeah,” Tony said. “That’s to be expected. It’ll get better.”

When Stephen could find nothing to say to that, Tony reached out and started unwrapping the bandages around Stephen’s right wrist.

Instinctively, Stephen flinched away. Tony stopped, resting a hand on his leg and reassuring, “It will be okay, sweetheart. I promise. Will you trust me?”

Reluctantly, Stephen nodded. He offered the wrist back to Tony, bracing himself to see the wreckage the dressing hid. When the final strip was removed though, he was not prepared for the reality.

Tony rushed to fill the heavy silence. “Even with all the tech here, we weren’t able to save your original hands, but the medical staff were able to salvage all the nerve endings.”

Stephen could only continue to stare at the gold band that now circled his wrist just above the radiocarpal joint, smooth and perfect, ending not in a gory mass of tissue, but in a profusion of twinkling lights. As he flexed his hand, he watched them flare and change.

“Yeah, we needed you to be awake for the final connections.”

Stephen looked up at that, really meeting Tony’s eyes for the first time since he came to. “Connections? Connections to what?

“Why up to your new hands, of course.” Reaching for a faintly glowing blue box that had been resting on a table nearby, Tony pressed his thumb to the pad on the front and it flipped open, revealing a pair of hands.   
They looked just like his had before his accident: long, thin fingers beautiful, straight, and strong.

“They are vibranium,” Tony said. “but I asked Shuri to tint them gold because I know what a showy bastard you are.”

Mesmerised by the perfect hands nestled in the box, Stephen reached out to touch them, only to stop short at the sight of his cuffed wrist.

Tony set the box down to lightly grip Stephen’s arm. “Yeah, let’s fix that now.”

As Tony set to work, Stephen found his voice again, though it broke and rasped as he said, “Thank you.”

Tony smiled back at him, radiating warmth and love. “Ah, you know me, Doc. Always ready to lend a hand.”


End file.
